Dimitri Kipiani

Prince, publicist, writer and translator

1814–1887

Dimitri Kipiani (1814–1887) was a prince, publicist, writer and translator, a figure of the Georgian national revival and a close associate of Ilia Chavchavadze and Akaki Tsereteli.

He did much for enlightenment: he helped found the Society for the Spreading of Literacy among Georgians, the Nobility Bank and the Georgian Drama Society, and translated Shakespeare into Georgian.

In 1886 Kipiani publicly stood up against the Exarch of Georgia, who had cursed the Georgian people, for which he was exiled to Stavropol, where in 1887 he was murdered in unexplained circumstances. In 2007 the Georgian Church canonised him.